2008-06-11 - Rear guard always takes it ... in the rear.

[Slamlander]

And white flags are just an aid for targeting corrections.

... and here I thought they were target priority markers. Targets marked with the white flag are the ones you are supposed to hit first and only then you get to hit the rest

[Tiamat]

Ah, so I guess it wasn't Nisotta getting blown away at the front of the line, it was just some nameless elven commander. Too bad really. If it had of been Nisotta, then maybe "reasonable elf" would have moved up the food chain a little and actually been able to get someone to listen to him.

I doubt the person listening would be Ian, though. At this point they're pretty much committed to the assault - Ian's not gonna stop to let them get a few words in.

[mindstalk]

Poe has said the elves are still the single biggest power in the world (not counting Ian/Anilis, presumably), and they probably know that (not to mention assume it), so a Tsuirakuan war, while bad, probably isn't that high on their list of concerns. Especially right now. And going to war with the frigging *elves* over a kidnapping, even for a leader's granddaughter, would be an unusual decision for a government, wallpapers notwithstanding.

[Labrat]

My question is how many elves do these guys even have left? They are down to one almost entirely empty city that probably wasn't even that big to begin with. A few hundred? A few thousand?

Even in their best of days, elves couldn't maintain replacement rate for their population if more than one individual died in a city in a hundred year span... and now it seems that the pointy-eared-bastards aren't even trying anymore. After all, Misa was the last elven crotch-spawn and she was born (from our perspective) during the fall of Rome.

Man, these guys are boned.

[Michael Poe]

My question is how many elves do these guys even have left? They are down to one almost entirely empty city that probably wasn't even that big to begin with. A few hundred? A few thousand?

somewhere in the low four digit range.

[davester65]

My question is how many elves do these guys even have left? They are down to one almost entirely empty city that probably wasn't even that big to begin with. A few hundred? A few thousand?

somewhere in the low four digit range.

Well, that answers a question a lot of us have been wondering about. So that means 2000 - 3000 elves left tops. Barely a viable gene pool even if they figured out how to have kids again. If the elves have to abandon the city, I wonder where they'll all go. It would be interesting to see what would happen if they had to settle in some human country.

[mindstalk]

It's not that bad, and their gene pool is probably top-notch. Inbreeding's a problem because of recessives piling up, and they were probably designed perfectly, and have magical maintenance to boot.

Then again, maybe they're sterile because of accumulated gonad damage over dekamillennia.

[Viking-Sensei]

Poe has said the elves are still the single biggest power in the world (not counting Ian/Anilis, presumably), and they probably know that (not to mention assume it), so a Tsuirakuan war, while bad, probably isn't that high on their list of concerns. Especially right now. And going to war with the frigging *elves* over a kidnapping, even for a leader's granddaughter, would be an unusual decision for a government, wallpapers notwithstanding.

However, if the Tsuirakans show up outside the mountain with a giant wooden flying cat they wish to offer to the elves as tribute... that would be awesome.

[BloodHenge]

Then again, maybe they're sterile because of accumulated gonad damage over dekamillennia.

If their skin doesn't wrinkle, why would their reproductive organs dry up?

[mindstalk]

Then again, maybe they're sterile because of accumulated gonad damage over dekamillennia.

If their skin doesn't wrinkle, why would their reproductive organs dry up?

Excellent question!

One might posit that the gonads are less protected, or that their skin does wrinkle very slowly -- people have suggested Sarine looks a bit older than other elves, perhaps from being out and about and not underground. (Though in real life whether being in a cave protected you from radiation would vary -- protect from cosmic rays, but might have radioactive sources of its own.)

But if I had to bet I'd bet the lack of children is due more to some magical reason or design cut-off or divine interference... though I wouldn't bet much on any idea, 'cuz I haven't seen any likely and attractive ideas. (Gonad damage isn't attractive; I want the elven design to be perfect. Though obviously the maintenance field didn't go as far as Tsuirakuan familiars.)